An amazing thing happened on saturday night - we went out! Yeeha, there's (a glimmer of) life left in this soul yet. Lixie was having a celebration for her recent engagement, so we headed on over. It's not far, but if it wasn't for Tom driving I wouldn't have ventured out... me, with my sudden and frequent need for sleep on public transport of a saturday evening? Don't think so. Anyhow, Pooch was suitably drunk and Lixie was the perfect hostess. It was also cool to catch up with Nic and her new fella Andy. Y'know when you see two people working effortlessly together, a well matched couple? Well that's this pair. So many lovely, happy people to talk to. So no drunken late nights for me - we headed home before I crashed embarrassingly into a sleepy lump in a corner.

Other than that, have spent much of the last few days sleeping. After my relative productivity of spinning and dyeing earlier last week, the body has needed plenty of rest. I have however been finishing off a few crochet hats that needed something extra... each one, seemingly finished, didn't look right. Am happier with them now.

This first one on the left didn't have the ball at the crown initially... just a simple hat worked in clusters it didn't seem very 'Wormhead'.... I quite like it now. Not exactly one of my most experimental hats but then I can't always be producing quirky pieces.

This pinkish one on the right used up oddments of hand-dyed chunky, and I added a pink silk trim. This one developed from some sample pieces I tried the other week, trying to make more of the spiral effect coming out of the crown. You can't see it too clearly in this one, yet there's a sort of swirl/spiral stripe which looks lovely.

Here's one of the samples made last week, to give you a clearer look at the effect. It's created no differently to any other top-down crown except the rounds aren't closed, and are instead worked continously. One colour becomes the increase rounds, the other the plain rounds, so you're working both colours at the same time. Being as spirals and circles are faves, I've been doing a few more....

Another one here on the right, with a slightly perkier crown. Also, the colours are more tonally suited, so again the effect is subtle. Added a slight shaping as you can see, giving the rim a sort of cloche shape. This one still needs blocking.

This red one isn't finished, and as you can see it's got a kinda 'Princess Lea' sorta flap kinda thing. I'm not happy with the way the spirals are joined though, so it will be partially frogged. Otherwise, I do rather like the design. If any crocheters are reading and want to offer some advice on seam free joining, please do. The side spirals are worked seperately, and I slipped stitch them on and then worked rows of DC to bring the main body into line. Think I may try using a crocheted DC seam from the inside, as I think that may be more invisible. Anyhow, it's also been a good exercise in tackling my thang with red for Project Spectrum.... have even been talking about it in Art therapy - am discovering that I have aversions to a few colours, green being another.

Not to be left out, here's that knitted red hat I made last week which has finally dried. Man, it's a long hat. Starting the shape at the rim, and working as a square, three of the sides had alternate chunks of short row shapings, which give it a bulbous effect. Ribs of garter stitch between help emphasis it, yet concertina it all together. Then a flat circular crown was worked, ending up with an unevenly shaped hat that can sit on the head in a couple of ways. It's a perfect hair-sack, if a little heavy.

Am just finishing off a spiral beret which is looking gorgeous with it's colours, if I may say so. Am saving my experimental energy for a commission just in, which has fired me up. The real fun part is that the intended recipient of the hat is rather camera shy, so have been finding out about them through interesting questions and thorough descriptions... have now got a pretty clear idea of the hat to make for them! Shall be spinning and dyeing the yarn for this one, so am looking forward to getting started, possibly tomorrow.

Otherwise, apart from sleep and tieing up a few loose ends, nothing much else to report. Have had a few down moods of late, but nothing much to worry about - probably just tiredness. The lurgy is here, yet is taking it's time settling in... damn bugs. Horrible when you get mild symptoms, telling you a nasty cold is on it's way, yet it keeps teasing and dragging on. Just get it over with, please!

SP - I owe you an email, on it's way shortly! Think the germs still managed to get here ;)